AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 223 



mountains of Germany. The broad vestiges of the old river beds 

 show too that our rivers of to-day have grown much tamer and 

 better behaved, as well as that floods were much more common 

 when Germany had still its primeval forests than now. But the 

 correct explanation of this lies in quite another direction, and does 

 not at all contradict the fact that the destruction of the mountain 

 forests has materially increased the dryness of the atmosphere, the 

 inequality in the distribution of the rainfall, and the danger of 

 floods in the valleys. It is evident that it was not so much the 

 quantity of the rainfall that formed one of the principal causes of 

 these floods, as the forests in the plain, which later gave way to 

 arable and meadow cultivation. The washing away of ground 

 had not been so great nor the river beds so deepened as now, 

 while numerous obstacles to a quick ebb of the waters presented 

 themselves. 



The destruction of mountain forests is looked upon by all 

 scientists in these days as a calamity to the future of a country. 

 With the wood, the decayed soil, with its covering of moss and 

 leaves, goes inevitably from the mountain sides. The rain torrents 

 and the wind sweep them away and leave only the naked rock. 

 The weather-beaten mass thus broken off is carried rapidly to the 

 valley, where floods and boulder-deposits frequently take place on 

 the formerly cultivated ground. Numerous examples of the con- 

 sequences of forest destruction, reaching on to future generations, 

 are to be seen in different countries. In the year 1879 a Russian 

 newspaper contained the following : 



" One can wander for twenty or thirty hours on the coast of the 

 Black Sea, which was in earlier time covered with oak woods, 

 without finding a single tree. The once richly wooded environs 

 of Tiflis are now entirely treeless. This is even more true of 

 the mountain ridge of Daghestan, whose forests have been taken 

 for the firewood of steamships in the Caspian Sea. The soil of 

 Eriwan was once most productive ; rich cornfields alternated with 

 meadows between forests. To-day all is a desert waste, and the 

 inhabitants can scarcely secure the most necessary food." 



In the foregoing may be found much that is applicable to the 

 situation in Japan. The weal and woe of the inhabitants in the 

 valley depends to a certain degree upon the mountains and their 

 forests and the improvement of rivers and making them navigable 

 appears to be a problem which can only be solved satisfactorily in 

 connection with a thorough system of mountain forestry. The 

 preservation and scientific cultivation of mountain forests is one 

 of the most important duties which the Japanese government has 

 to perform for the good of the country. Their preservation serves 

 to regulate the profuse rainfall, to protect the land from floods at 

 the season of rain and thaw, and to provide the soil in the dry 

 season with a rich water supply to fill the rivers. Their cultivation 

 on the other hand aims to provide the needed wood supply, and to 



